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Notorious Exeter 'suitcase murder' on TV crime show

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The story behind the notorious Exeter 'body in the suitcase' murder will feature on a real life TV crime show tonight.

Kostadin Kostov, 42, of Mount Pleasant Road, was jailed for life earlier this year for the cold-hearted killing of his partner Gergana Prodanova.

After murdering the mother of his children he squeezed her naked body into a suitcase and hauled it through Exeter city centre in the middle of the night.

He was caught on CCTV dragging the case before dumping it on a railway embankment off Blackall Road.

Gergana Prodanova

He denied murder but was convicted after a trial at Exeter Crown Court.

The grisly episode is to feature on Spike on Monday, October 2, at 9pm in a programme called Criminals: Caught on Camera.

The programme will make extensive use of the CCTV which formed a crucial part of the trial. Kostov denied being the 'man in the baseball cap' seen dragging the suitcase. But the prosecution proved through painstaking detective work that it had to be him. They even called as a witness an expert in human gait and body movement to examine how the defendant walked.

Sentencing him to the mandatory life imprisonment Sir John Royce told Kostov that he was a cruel man with dark elements to his character who had killed in cold blood the mother of his three children. He said Kostov was jealous of his ex partner's new relationship with another man and wanted control back.

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Sir John said: "Only you can tell us how you killed her and you choose not to. The most obvious method on the evidence would be strangulation and suffocation."

The trial, which lasted four weeks, was told that Kostov killed Gergana after she returned to their shared flat in Mount Pleasant Road on August 4, 2016. Her decomposing body was discovered in a suitcase on a railway embankment off Blackall Road on August 16.

The court was read a statement by Gergana's mother, who lives in Bulgaria.

Stefka Ilyeva said: "The death of Gergana has completely destroyed me. I'm heartbroken. She was my hope.

"I have deep sorrow she didn't deserve this fate. Gergana was very kind and loved her children very much. I cannot imagine what will happen to them now. Their grandmother who looks after them is almost 70 and I don't know what will happen to these kids. No one deserves such a fate."

Kostov with suitcase

After he killed Gergana, Kostov concocted a series of fake messages to keep up the pretence she was still alive.

But Sir John Royce said he underestimated the police.

He said: "Your case was that you were set up and framed by this poor lady. The jury wasn't taken in by that and nobody else will be. It serves to underline what a I regard as a cruel dark element in your character - an arrogance which is unattractive."

He added: "The fact is you're not as clever as you thought you were."

Kostov with Suitcase

"What you did was weave a web of deceit with what you thought were clever messages coming from her. The false scenario you created was about her going back to Bulgaria after the death of her mother. The tangled web revealed a ruthless determination but ultimately it was you who became ensnared in it."

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The pair had been together for 16 years before coming to the UK. Gergana arrived on Christmas Eve, 2015, to work. Kostov had been violent to her in the past and the judge said he had no doubt that part of the reason for leaving him was to escape him. Kostov joined her in the UK in April, 2016. But by that time Gergana had fallen in love with another Bulgarian man living in the UK called Tihomir Todorov.

The judge described Gergana as a 'humble and hard working' woman.

Kostov disposed of Gergana

"She had obviously retained some feelings for you because at one stage there had been a plan for you to follow her here. Her relationship with Mr Todorov changed that. You did, no doubt, find it difficult to accept he had become her boyfriend. He was kind to her and it is quite clear from the evidence they got on very well. Unlike you he would never have used violence against her."

Kostov held his head in his hands for much of the sentencing. He must serve at least 19 years before he is considered for release by the parole board. The expectation is he will serve his time in a UK jail.